Drunken Crayfish

Do you know that? You may visit the HOPS FESTIVAL IN VAL DE SAMBRE as from 12 September 2008

Great hops festivity with best-gatherer contest: a unique event in Wallonia! All amazing animations throughout the weekend: music, guided tours of the brewery, hot-air balloons with first flights opportunity, handicraft exhibitions and demonstrations, street animations. Preview performance: presentation of the TOURIST AND EDUCATIONAL GARDEN with hopfield.

Opening periods:
from Friday 12 September 2008 to Sunday 14 September 2008
SATURDAY : 08:30-23:30
SUNDAY : 10:00-20:00
Theme: BEER
Extra information:
Free entrance all weekend!
Learn more about this:
url : http://www.brasserie-brootcoorens-erquelinnes.be
email : angelus.br@swing.be
Address:
Microbrasserie d’Erquelinnes
Rue de Maubeuge 197
6560 ERQUELINNES
MAPS: Google Maps
Touring Route Planner
Tel.: +32 (0) 71 55 86 66
Booking : Tel.: +32 (0) 479 88 78 35

World: InBev and Anheuser-Busch agree to combine, creating the global leader in beer with Budweiser as its flagship brand

InBev and Anheuser-Busch announced on July 14 an agreement to combine the two companies, forming the world?s leading global brewer. Anheuser-Busch shareholders will receive $70 per share in cash, for an aggregate equity value of $52 billion, in an industry-transforming transaction. The combined company will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Both companies? Boards of Directors have unanimously approved the transaction believing that it is in the best interests of both companies? shareholders, consumers, employees, wholesalers, business partners and the communities they serve.

On a pro-forma basis for 2007, the new-born global leader in the beer industry would have generated global volumes of 460 million hectoliters, revenues of $36.4 billion (?26.6 billion) and EBITDA of $10.7 billion (?7.8 billion).

The company will make St. Louis, Missouri the headquarters for the North American region and the global home of the flagship Budweiser brand. With about 40% of the combined company’s revenues to be generated in the U.S., the company will draw on the collective expertise of Anheuser-Busch’s dedicated and experienced employees and its culture of quality. Given the limited geographical overlap between the two businesses and the efficiency of Anheuser-Busch?s brewery footprint in the United States, all of Anheuser-Busch?s U.S. breweries will remain open.

About InBev

InBev is a publicly traded company (Euronext: INB) based in Leuven, Belgium. The company’s origins date back to 1366, and today, it is the leading global brewer. As a true consumer-centric, sales driven company, InBev manages a carefully segmented portfolio of more than 200 brands. This includes true beer icons with global reach like Stella Artois® and Beck?s®, fast growing multicountry brands like Leffe® and Hoegaarden®, and many consumer loved “local champions” like Skol®, Quilmes®, Sibirskaya Korona®, Chernigivske®, Sedrin®, Cass® and Jupiler®. InBev employs close to 89 000 people, running operations in over 30 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. In 2007, InBev realized 14.4 billion euro of revenue. For further information visit http://www.inbev.com.

About Anheuser-Busch

Based in St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch is the leading American brewer, holding a 48.5 percent share of U.S. beer sales. The company brews the world’s largest-selling beers, Budweiser and Bud Light. Anheuser-Busch also owns a 50 percent share in Grupo Modelo, Mexico’s leading brewer, and a 27 percent share in China brewer Tsingtao, whose namesake beer brand is the country’s best-selling premium beer. Anheuser-Busch ranked No. 1 among beverage companies in FORTUNE Magazine’s Most Admired U.S. and Global Companies lists in 2008. Anheuser-Busch is one of the largest theme park operators in the United States, is a major manufacturer of aluminum cans and one of the world’s largest recyclers of aluminum cans. For more information, visit www.anheuser-busch.com

World: Drink beer scientifically

?Beer can?t get you drunk,? Dr. Leon A. Greenberg proves in his study. The professor of physiology at Yale University asserts that man?s stomach simply cannot hold the amount of beer needed for this purpose. Besides, the rate at which beer is eliminated in the body is faster than that people can consume, collegeotr.com reports.

The study was made public in 1955, and since then scientists have been objecting, claiming that beer does get one drunk. Dr. Greenberg was accused of not being able to recognize the stages of drunkenness.

Alcohol affects different people differently, and being drunk means something different to everyone, scientists say. They point out some obvious loopholes in the research. Dr. Greenberg clearly didn?t consider games like beer pong/beirut, flip cup, kings or funneling. He also forgot that people mix their drinks, ultimately consuming more than just beer ? and lots of it ? very quickly.

It seems people don?t stick to just beer anymore. Therefore, getting drunk is inevitable ? and welcomed.

USA: Hops Crisis Generates New Suggestions

For those who have never heard about the “HOP CRISIS” (the capitals stress its importance), a Humble Brewer of glacierbrewing.blogspot.com describes it as follows:

The hop suppliers have been sitting on a hop surplus the past few years, this surplus has artificially driven the price of hops down, breweries have been buying these cheaper hops, the hop farmers can’t meet the payments on their John Deere so they either:

A) get out of hop farming or

B) they stay in hop farming but don’t expand their planted acreage.

Either way, the surplus gets used up due to increased demand.

Whatever the cause decimating world-wide hop harvest, the result is the same: the average price of hops (if you can find any to buy) has gone from about $4.80 per pound to about $39.00 per pound.

Never before has the modern beer industry been faced with such an attack on one of their principles: hops! Why is it so crucial? According to the federal government’s requirement, breweries are to include hops in their beer for it to be considered beer at the rate of 7 pounds per 100 barrels (one barrel equals 31 gallons).

Though there are over 30 other plants besides hops that have been used to bitter beer, they are not “recognized” by the authorities, Humble Brewer laments bitterly. The author suggests supplementing the hops supply by brewing a beer with some hops AND spruce tips, for instance the new growth of Colorado Blue and Green Spruce Trees.

All interested are welcome to ?tell or email or call or slip a note under the door?.

Japan: Woman will save beer sales

Major Japanese brewers are targeting women to increase beer sales in an effort to overcome sluggish sales of alcoholic beverages, JapanToday reported on July 23.

Kirin Brewery Co has assigned female employees to develop cocktails tailored for young women while Sapporo Breweries Ltd. has set up a team composed of seven women to create a new product.

Kirin began marketing ??two dogs cocktails?? in 350 cc cans on June 18?one called ??cassis navel?? in a pink can and another called ??salty bulldog?? in a green can?for around 148 yen.

The products were developed by Sakurako Yoshino, 26, and Natsu Mori, 24, who are both in their third year with Kirin. The pair were given the assignment as the company wanted to come up with beers and cocktails that women of the same generation as Yoshino and Mori would enjoy.

??I wanted to develop a product that would be more of a pleasure to look at and to taste than the products available, which emphasize ?osake? (alcohol),?? Yoshino said.

Sapporo formed a project team of seven women in their 20s and 30s in the spring of last year to evaluate of product development, market research and public relations from a women?s perspective.

Kirin also maintains a group of female employees who carry out sales promotion activities targeted at women. The group participates in the company?s ??Nihombashi Nadeshiko (Japanese women) Project,?? holding interchange meetings with women working in Tokyo?s Nihombashi district, and engages in word-of-mouth promotional campaigning.

Kirin is aggressively promoting women to higher positions. It is aiming to increase the number of women in managerial positions to 100 by 2015 from about 30 in 2006.

The problem, however, is how to elevate talented women employees to executive positions when quite a few leave the company because of marriage or to find a position with another company after for working for Kirin for about five years.

Belgium: Enjoy new chocolate pearls by Leonidas

Leonidas, the Belgian chocolate company, introduced a new kind of chocolate thus establishing itself in the ?on-the-go? segment, Franchise Key United Kingdom reported on June 17.

Perles Pures, the new range of ?on-the-go? products, meets a growing demand from consumers, for they can enjoy it whenever and wherever they are. The milk and fondant chocolates are available either in 160-gram cardboard boxes or 37-gram tins.

Leonidas is the world?s most famous Belgian chocolate maker. It was founded by Leonidas Kestekides in 1913 and since then has developed into a network of more than 1,400 outlets in 40 countries on all five continents around the world.

Since its foundation, the company says, it has always given priority to launching new products and concepts which have helped to establish the brand both in Belgium and across the world.